Federal agents make prey of online predators who search out children

FBI special agent Michael Whitmire works on the Houston Area Child Exploitation Task Force. He works online, posing as a child to catch online adult predators who try to entice children into sexual activities.

FBI special agent Michael Whitmire works on the Houston Area Child Exploitation Task Force. He works online, posing as a child to catch online adult predators who try to entice children into sexual activities.

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

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A screen grab shows a chat exchange between agent Michael Whitmire, posing as a 13-year-old girl, and an allegedly 32-year-old Michigan man.

A screen grab shows a chat exchange between agent Michael Whitmire, posing as a 13-year-old girl, and an allegedly 32-year-old Michigan man.

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

Federal agents make prey of online predators who search out children

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Some police go undercover as hit men or gangsters. This 40-year-old FBI agent is pretending to be a 13-year-old girl.

And the bad guys can't control themselves.

Within moments of joining an online teen chat site on a recent afternoon, the Houston-based agent had eight conversations going at once.

He rolls his desktop mouse and types rapidly while bantering with men who are up front about being adults interested in young girls.

One guy describes himself as a Marine from Pennsylvania.

Another lives in Canada. "How tall are you baby?" he asks.

Related

With the explosive growth of smart phones, gaming devices and social media, authorities say children are more vulnerable than ever to online sexual predators looking for explicit photos or videos or in-person sex.

The days are gone when a family could have one computer in a central part of the home, where it was easy to look over a kid's shoulder.

Given the growing number of applications for online chatting, combined with phones and mobile gaming devices that have cameras and Web access, private conversations can take place anywhere.

Dances of lies

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which is a clearinghouse for tips about cyber predators, reports it averages 10,000 to 13,000 tips a week of possible online sexual abuse of kids.

More Information

To report a tip regarding suspected crimes of sexual exploitation against children, visit the CyberTipline at http://us.missingkids.com/CyberTipline.

The numbers are increasing, according to the center, as predators pounce on more children with more technology.

Ohio resident Harley Peterson, 23, pleaded guilty this month in Texas to using an online gaming site and telephone to coerce a 15-year-old Corpus Christi girl into running away with him and having sex. He was caught with her by Homeland Security.

Also, a 54-year-old Michigan man recently pleaded guilty to traveling to Laredo to have sex with a supposed 15-year-old girl he met online in March. The Laredo teen was actually an undercover officer. Douglas Alan Butler was arrested by federal agents who found his stash of condoms and Viagra.

Meanwhile, at the FBI's Houston division headquarters, the online undercover agent posing as a teenager is quickly asked if "she" has a boyfriend, what she looks like, and what she is wearing.

The men might actually believe they are reeling in a mischievous teenager, even if they've never seen a photo.

They are really chatting with FBI Special Agent Michael Whitmire, who is wearing a gun and badge and is a member of a special Houston-based squad that turns online predators into prey.

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The agent is careful not to lead conversations, and chats like a teenager, not like an adult. He peppers the conversation with lingo like, "where ru," and "yuck," and "yeah."

Similar interactions - dances of lies, half-truths and manipulations - go on every day, many times a day, according to law enforcement officials.

Sometimes conversations fade. Others develop into sending vulgar videos and photos, or occasionally elevate to dangerous face-to-face encounters in which adults attempt to meet the children in person and have sex.

Should a potential suspect want to speak with an agent posing as a child or see them, the agency has techniques that can be used, but declined to reveal them.

In the past 10 years, the FBI's Houston Area Child Exploitation Task Force, which targets the online predators, has helped arrest hundreds of people across the United States, including doctors, teachers, police officers, coaches and business owners. Arrests have also been made as far away as Italy and Ireland.

They work from cubicles within a room where the material they discuss and review would be a parent or employer's nightmare.

During this particular shift, three agents, a Harris County sheriff's deputy, and a civilian analyst are on the job.

On a wall is a constantly changing rogue's gallery of the driver's licenses of suspects titled, "Top Ten Faces of Houston Evil."

They are usually men with no prior criminal arrests. They have ranged in age from their 20s to 70s, and have an array of educational and professional backgrounds.

'A scary topic'

Among the culprits the squad has recently busted is Steve Correa who is serving 20 years in federal prison for enticing a 9-year-old girl in Minnesota.

Correa, who was self-employed providing computer support for lawyers, might never have been caught if it wasn't for the girl's father.

He was cleaning the basement in April 2012 and noticed the family computer was open. His daughter had been chatting on kidzworld.com with someone named, "cute_vampire_boy."

He held himself out as a 16-year-old Texas boy, but was really 33-year-old Correa, who lived in Spring.

The father then checked her Yahoo! account and found a chat log in which his daughter had been speaking to Correa.

Correa was adamant about the girl sending him nude photos and coming to meet her in person for sex, according to a transcript.

They had exchanged photos, including some that the girl took of herself in the mirror using a Nintedo DS, a handheld gaming device.

When authorities raided Correa's home, they seized a computer bookmarked to more than 200 videos of children engaging in sexual activity. There were also photos of the Minnesota girl.

Houston-based federal prosecutor Robert Stabe said much of the child pornography being seized appears to be photos kids took of themselves and then passed along.

"It gets preached to them, but they don't realize that once it is sent to one person on the Internet, there is nothing stopping (the recipient) from sending it, and it grows and grows," Stabe said. "It is a scary topic for parents."

Eric Devlin, a former Harris County assistant district attorney, who specialized in online child pornography cases, owns a technology firm that does computer forensics. He said that in Texas an adult has committed a felony by knowingly speaking dirty to a minor or someone he believes is a minor.

"The bar is a sexually explicit conversation," he said. "Talk sex with them for the purpose of gratifying yourself sexually, and you've committed that felony offense."

Devlin said undercover officers are taught to make it very clear that the character they are pretending to be is underage, and try to lead the suspect away from sexual conversations. He said they are told to go to lengths to make sure they do not entrap anyone, not to illegally use sex as a lure.

"You'll watch the real predators turn the conversation right back to sex," he said. "(Officers) want to make sure they are not getting somebody in one of these cases who is not interested in a sexual relationship - online or in person - with a minor."

Adult forums

Back at the FBI's Houston office, times remained busy for Whitmire, the agent posing as a teenager.

He checks a posting he placed the night before on an adult forum while using another undercover persona. "No pedophile here," a respondent wrote in an e-mail. "You are a cop. Sucka."

Whitmire rolls back to the teen chat room, where the questions were coming quickly.

The guy from Canada is talking about how he finds dark-haired girls to be especially beautiful

"I love it when they tell me that," Whitmire says dryly. "Let's get him an all-expense paid, permanent vacation down here."